I am a single working mother. I earn a decent living to provide for my family. I have no disposable income whatsoever. I don't belong to an organization that has the capacity to raise money. I come from a background of poverty.
Ms. Landolt, if your organization would like to help me, I would much appreciate it. I'm one of the women in Canada the organizations speak for, but when I went looking for support and for financing, these radical feminists were there and helped out.
It's appalling. I'm sitting here listening to dialogue as if those rights enshrined in the charter mean nothing. You've got a Canadian system that says if there are violations, you can go to court. You can have your day in court, right? What happens if in order to get your day in court you've got to hand over $50,000? Who has $50,000? Which Indian woman has $50,000 that's not spent...? If she had it, she probably wouldn't need that kind of protection.
We have so many women in poverty, who don't have access to money. Our women don't even have access to proper housing, proper medical care, or anything. You're saying the program is gone.
And I see Ms. Landolt aligning herself with our Conservative people, and that's why I'm in tears to think my government will turn its back and say you've got money; you can raise your own money; you don't have to look to the government.
The government put the restrictions in place. It's legislation they've put into place. The government put the charter in place for us to use, but it's useless if we can't get there. It's useless if we don't have the money to get there. Make it free. Provide me with some free legal counsel. Provide me with some free research.
But you can't do that. You're saying we should go and raise our own money.